


Two sides of a not-so-clean Coin

by Critique_Masochist



Category: Devil May Cry, DmC: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angel Dante, Angel/Demon Relationship, Brotherly Love, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Demon AU, Demon Virgil, Inspired by the book Good Omens, M/M, One shot that developted a plot, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, angel au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 04:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18731491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Critique_Masochist/pseuds/Critique_Masochist
Summary: The story of a mischevious angel and a demon with a soft side. Both misfits but both are rather good at their job.Will their true nature tear them apart or will their friendship overcome all obstacles.





	1. Comfort Food

 

Dante lead his brother to his kitchen and sat him down on a small table. He went to the fridge and pulled out two large bowls of ice cream. They hurt to touch and Dante knew they would melt anyway, regardless of size, but he also knew that Virgil would appreciate both the ice cream and the fact that they didn’t melt easily.

“Strawberry or chocolate?” he asked.

“I don’t want anything to do with human food.” Virgil declared. “Demons do not require food nor do they participate in the consumerist tradition that is making many people very rich and happy.”

It was true that demons looked down on other hell-spawns who ate human food, however it was often required to appear more human and also, Virgil LOVED human food with a deep passion. He had hoarded boxes full of food in his apartment that had completely baffled Dante.

He had been hiding it from everyone and eating in secret like some kind of drug addict. Dante found this kind of behaviour to be adorably hilarious and he felt obliged to reinforce his brothers good-habits. For the greater good, obviously, and not to make his brother happy.

 

“Chocolate?” Dante raised one of the bowls and waved it in front of Virgil’s face. He was delighted to see his brother nod once in approval.

“I hate you.” Virgil said before getting up and grabbing two spoons from a cabinet. He was about to hand one to Dante but he remembered that that wouldn’t be evil so he set the spoon on fire before handing it over. “You know how it is.” He said, almost apologetically.

 “Thank you.” Dante smirked and gripped the spoon, enjoying the way his angelic aura undid any damage that was done to him. His smug expression infuriated his brother in every way. They both sat down at the table, on opposite sides, and started eating chocolate and lemon ice cream. Virgil was the first to break the silence.

“It’s not like I’m doing this for the Devil.” He said, defensively. “It’s just that these humans need a real ruler!”

“I do agree with that.” Dante shrugged casually. “But you’re not the right guy.”

“I am a force of nature, sent by one of the most powerful beings alive! I have lived for hundreds of years!” Virgil started while waving his spoon around furiously. “These pathetic ants on the other hand, come to this earth small and naked and stay about as dumb as when they were born until they die.”

He paused to breath and then continued more calmly, as if he hadn’t just exposed his massive ego. “Most of them are mindless sheep that do not care about the bigger picture. They WANT someone to make the big choices, they want someone like me to rule them; they just don’t know it yet.” Virgil insisted.

His face was taking many terrifying unhuman shapes as his supernatural side started to surface. Small horns were bursting out Doff his skin on his head and on his cheekbones.

“Dude, relax. You’re getting all red in the face.”

 

“That’s what you’re worried about?? Really?” the demon howled. “Dante, look at humanity! They are hopeless! They need me! They need me and you keep getting in my way!”

Dante pointed at the bowl of ice cream as it had started to melt. Scorch marks were imprinted on the side of the bowl, where the demon had touched. Virgil cursed the Devil for filling him with burning rage and melting his fucking ice cream. He mumbled swears in different tongues that he had learned over the years and stood up to get a different bowl.

He put the first one back in the freezer, so that he could eat it later and not because it was the polite thing to do, and grabbed the strawberry flavoured one. It had started to melt by the time he sat back down.

“They make good ice cream, but they are doomed to destroy themselves.” Virgil said as he shoved the ice cream down his throat. He decided that it tasted a bit fake but the taste of cream made up for it.

“That is true. Especially the ice cream part.” Dante said. “I do wish they were better people but then again, that’s the sort of thing I am trying to nudge them to do.”

 

“You’re a terrible angel.” Virgil mumbled through spoonfuls of ice cream.

He knew all about Dante’s ‘nudging’. He was known as the prankster angel as he didn’t give luck to good people or gave power to people in need but instead focused on bad people and punishing them, without breaking the sacred contract.

He wasn’t allowed to directly hurt anyone but that NEVER stopped Dante. He had made birds crash through windows, turned lottery tickets invisible and transferred funds in bank accounts.

It wasn’t technically against the rules but Virgil knew that his brother wasn’t doing it because he was a good person but because he enjoyed the anger and chaos much more than he really should.

“You can’t just punish the wicket, that makes you just as bad as them.” Virgil chocked on his words but kept eating anyway.

“As long as the big guy doesn’t yell at me, I can do whatever I want.” Dante grinned. “Today I made a guy drop 3 sandwiches on the ground in a row. Serves him right for stealing freaking sandwiches from the supermarket. Seriously, he wasn’t even that poor.”

“Does it say in the book how poor you are required to be to be allowed to steal sandwiches?”

“The book doesn’t allow stealing.” Dante reminded him. “I just felt the need to point out that, not only did he steal, but he was also not poor.”

 

Despite the unorthodox nature of Dante’s actions, his methods did work. Ruining three sandwiches wasn’t something that would just happen by accident and people usually remembered negative events more than positive ones. That thief would remember that day for a long time and Virgil knew it.

He knew that Dante wasn’t just some clown that only won because he had most of the population on his side. No, his brother was a respectable rival. A rival like that, if Virgil ever managed to defeat, would gain his immense reputation in Hell.

Virgil coughed and clenched his teeth as the cold finally became unbearable. He was a demon but he was still wearing human skin. Ice cream would never hurt him in his true form but he didn’t really like his true form. It was ugly and it scared away could-be-criminals but most of all, it just made him feel more like a monster than an evil genius. Virgil didn’t think he was a monster.

Of course, Dante was usually nice enough to stay in human form as well. Not so that Virgil wouldn’t feel awkward but because feeding Virgil’s good-habits was a very angelic thing to do.

 

“Brain freeze?” Dante laughed.

“And here I thought humans made GOOD food.” Virgil hissed through the pain.

“Aww. Demon defeated by ice cream.” Dante mocked, unable to resist the temptation of causing chaos.

“Fuck you.” Virgil snarled.

“Fuck you!” Dante said, to complete the reference.

Virgil looked away, angry. The other demons had already mocked him for letting a few angel’s ruin the plan that he had spend WEEKS setting up! It wasn’t fair, there was only one of him and angels liked to cooperate.

It wasn’t even that his plan had failed but the fact that people, that he somewhat respected, made fun of him hurt him deeply. He had figured that his own brother would understand the pain that comes with being rejected by his own people but clearly Dante was just as big of a jerk as they were!

He decided that, no, of course he shouldn’t have opened up to an angel. He should have bottled up his emotions like a REAL demon. Had he become weak? Was that why he had come here? Was it more than just rage, more than just the need to rant?

Virgil realised that he had come here, for comfort.

 

He stood up immediately.

 

“Hey, it was just a joke.” His brother said, surprised.

“I remembered something. I have to go.” Virgil lied like a good demon would. Or, a bad demon. It really depended on whose side you were on and even then, it was confusing.

“No wait!” Dante shouted. “Play Mario Kart with me!”

Virgil stopped to consider this. Beating Dante at a silly video game would effectively ruin his brother’s day. And since Dante was an angel, he wouldn’t use any of the shortcuts for some reason. It would be an easy victory.

But Virgil **wanted** to stay and that wasn’t good. He had been afraid that this would happen. He was afraid that he would get attached to someone to the point where… he felt like he _needed_ them. Even if he only _needed_ Dante for 5 minutes.

It was still bad news. It was still playing with fire. He felt nauseous. He had consumed this ice cream under **friendly** circumstances. It had been a **gift** from his brother to him. Truly disgusting. Not worthy of someone as highly ranked among demons as Virgil.

His stomach turned and he felt the need to leave immediately.

 

Virgil got out without even taking his coat. Dante was left confused. Virgil wasn’t forgetful, he thought things through for ages because he was boring, he wouldn’t just forget something this important. Had he pushed his brother too far? Virgil looked at the bowl of strawberry ice cream. He hadn’t melted that much. Virgil wasn’t angry when he left.

Maybe, he had pushed Virgil too far in a different sense. Dante frowned at the thought. He had assumed that his brother was on board with this strange friendship. He had thought Virgil enjoyed this. No, Dante was sure that his brother enjoyed hanging out with him. He wasn’t just a loser angel, after all. He was a ‘cool angel’, that any demon would ‘love’ to befriend. But, then again, demons didn’t have many friends.

Dante decided that he should go after Virgil. Not to reassure him but to annoy him, obviously.


	2. Crash Landing

 

Virgil turned himself invisible and jumped out of the window because he was too lazy to climb down the stairs. He switched into his demon form mid-air and spread out his wings enough to carry his weight. He hated his real form but he didn’t mind flying. He decided to go to the capital and preferable cause as much evil as possible on the way there.

He floated at a calm but stable speed until he fond something to do. An angel, not his brother, whispering to two lovers at a park.

Virgil decided that he was probably telling them what one should say to the other. Classic, illogical and unhelpful angel stuff. Usually only dumb angels did things like this, lowly ranked angels that had a head filled with light and nothing else.

Virgil punched the angel in the face. The lovers jumped but since the two fantastical creatures were invisible, they just walked away to find a different spot to continue their sweet talk.

 

“Demon.” The angel said, surprised. “Do you know who I am??” she hissed. She hissed like a monster but that didn’t intimidate Virgil. He did jerk away when the angel transformed into a demon though.

“Oh.” he said, regaining his composure.

“I was hiding from the angels!” the shapeshifter hissed Virgil didn’t recognise her but he did feel bad about what he had done.

“Sorry.” He said, without thinking.

The shapeshifter stared. “You have been corrupted.”

“I just wasn’t thinking.”  Virgil explained. “I have a lot on y mind today. I just wanted to punch some angels, get it out of my system. I’m sure you’ll understand.”

“Are you apologising??” she gasped, shapeshifting into what looked almost like a bear.

Virgil sighed and blocked the first swipe that the bear took. “Look, I don’t know who you are so you’re probably expendable anyway. Don’t make me kill you.”

“HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!”

The demon came at Virgil a lot faster than he had expected. He yelped when, instead of biting him, something was stabbed into his chest. It was nothing, just a piece of wood and Virgil looked at the demon, confused.

“SERVES YOU RIGHT!!” the demon yelled before being knocked unconscious by a swift kick to the face.

Virgil didn’t like kicking demons in the face but he had enjoyed this particular kick regardless. He removed the piece of wood in his chest and watched as it healed up slowly. Then he started to look around for something less aggressive to do.

 

There were certain rules that demons had to play by when using their powers.

They weren’t allowed to **be seen** flying or performing supernatural acts. They weren’t allowed to **force** humans to do evil. They weren’t allowed to **directly help** evil people achieve their goals. They weren’t allowed to directly help other demons achieve their goals.

These rules weren’t as restrictive as the ones the angels had to play by but the fact that demons were discouraged from cooperating at every turn made things a lot more difficult for them.

Virgil played by the rules and glitched vending machines, broke toilets and put thoughts in people’s minds such as ‘maybe I shouldn’t tip’, ‘who cares if it’s his birthday?!’ and ‘I should touch that woman’.

Ah, that last one was interesting.

With a satisfied smile he watched as the young guy walked towards a young woman. They were in a public park but the woman had gone to a more deserted area in an attempt to stay hidden while trying to pee in a bush because all the toilets were out of order for some reason. She thought she was hidden well but the guy had heard her.

Usually this was a set up for a comedy but today a demon was involved. There was no end to the possibilities!

Still, they were only possibilities because people did, in fact, have free will. Thoughts were just that, thoughts. It was the actions that mattered, demons couldn’t make humans act but they could do many other things that would push any rational person to do the craziest things.

Usually the goal wasn’t death tough.

Surprisingly, the Devil didn’t like mass murder. It sent a lot of potential-sinners straight to heaven. He did, however, love the effects of the mass murder. Feelings of hopelessness and revenge and loneliness… that was the goal.

Sexual assault would achieve that goal.

 

Virgil watched with a smile as the woman twitched and held her breath when she heard somebody get closer. She would try to scream, he thought, but not if he told her that he has a knife.

The demon was about to put that thought in the man’s head when-

“I leave you alone for a minute and this is what you do?” asked a voice.

Virgil turned around to see Dante, also invincible, leaning against a light pole. Unlike Virgil, Dante’s true form was very human looking. His eyes had grown wider and had turned a glowing white and his clothes were ripped to give way to the multiple wings but that was about it, assuming that you could ignore the shining aura.

Dante slowly, with his middle finger, pushed the security camera on the light pole towards the crime scene. Virgil rolled his eyes. Putting thoughts in people’s heads would accomplish nothing if the sinner would be arrested without effecting anyone else.

Virgil watched in defeat as the woman shrieked and the man jerked away and ran. Virgil left too, grunting and hissing a swear words as he did.

 

Dante grinned at the red figure floating away. In their true form, Virgil and he looked nothing alike. The demon was easily recognisable as such by his many horns that grew in very round and majestic shapes, the fire red skin and dark hair, claws and large devil wings.

Demons were allowed to be seen in their true form by humans. According to the rules, most humans didn’t believe it when they saw a demon but they did believe it when they saw an angel.

This was most likely because of the magical aura that surrounded every angel. Demons just looked like ugly dudes in body paint which was much less believable. Demons had been arrested for scaring children too. They then had to fake being a human in a costume and actually do time in prison as to not expose their true nature.

The rules said that humans weren’t supposed to be completely sure about a holy deity’s existence, because if they were then their actions would be very heavily effected-which was cheating.

Dante and Virgil partook in the game of good and evil for a while, both not really gaining or losing any followers. Virgil made a guy trip, Dante made someone help him up. Virgil put thoughts in the guys mind, Dante convinced the guy that he was just in love. Virgil made him doubt himself and Dante encouraged the guy to ask the other person out. Nothing happened and nothing changed.

Nobody won. Nobody lost.

 

Virgil tried and failed to fly away a few times to get rid of the angel but his brother was about as stubborn as he was. Still, Virgil’s wings were stronger than Dante’s impractical fancy set of flapping tools and so the demon at least managed to put a bit of distance between them.

He stopped when he spotted an ice cream truck. Oh, there was a lot that a demon could do there. Innocent looking places were creative playgrounds for demons; ice cream trucks, churches, schools, ballet.

Virgil was a very creative person. He had a few ideas but before he had the chance to do any of that, his stomach cramped painfully, almost making fall out of the sky. He landed quickly and relieved himself of the guilt in his stomach.

He sighed in embarrassment. Demons were given a human form which was capable of acting ‘human enough’ to fool most people, yet some of these design choices really confused Virgil. He never needed to eat or sleep yet he needed to puke when he ate something that he shouldn’t, or in this case, when he felt overwhelmingly terrible about what he ate.

At least he was able to ruin somebodies back yard. That had to count for something.

 

He frowned when he heard somebody land behind him.

“Ah, strong move. I don’t think I can counter that.” Dante mused.

“You make me sick.” Virgil coughed. Why was his head throbbing like that?

“Literally, am I right?” Dante grinned before approaching his brother in an attempt to help.

“Quite literally.” Said the demon before taking off.

A bit weird but Dante was having fun. He had enjoyed teasing his brother and ‘wining’ by ruining his schemes and it wasn’t unlike Virgil to act antagonistic like this. He did seem a bit off which was why Dante had followed him to begin with but Virgil hadn’t spewed accusations at him or anything and Dante was starting to believe that there was nothing to be worried about after all.

 

That’s when he noticed that Virgil wasn’t flying very well.

His wings flapped irregularly and it looked like he was fighting against the wind instead of letting it carry him. All traits of an amateur or a very dizzy expert.

Dante was now, actually worried.

Virgil was clearly not feeling well. Yet, Dante knew he couldn’t catch up to Virgil. He decided to try something different.

“Don’t follow me!” he yelled.

Virgil was struggling to stay afloat but he was happy with the speed he was at; he stopped when he heard Dante though. Dante had used their secret phrase. Whenever one of them really needed to talk to the other, often in private, they would yell that exact phrase. Dante had used it to get his brothers help once, during a fight between angels and demons, because he had been fatally injured.

Virgil had used the same words the day that his brother had entered blast radius of a terrible bomb that he and other demons had indirectly set up. He had used them to pursue his brother away from danger.

All in all, the phrase had been invented by Virgil to protect Dante. It was a sacred deal between the two and it was the one promise that Virgil had never ever broken in his hundreds or years of living.

Being-a-good-demon might have been more important to Virgil at that moment but he decided that flying-away wasn’t worth breaking his brothers’ heart for.

 

“Fine.”

Virgil landed, or rather almost crashed, but didn’t approach Dante in any way. He couldn’t bring himself to ‘follow him’ but he had managed to convince himself to let his brother catch up. He wasn’t feeling well at all. he had assumed that the weird feeling was due to some stupid psychological trigger but now that everything was spinning, he was starting to think otherwise.

Dante floated towards his brother. He landed very smoothly and put a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. The demon had let go of his wings. They were both touching the ground lazily, instead of being tucked up nicely behind his back. Lazy demons would let their wings hang like that, though Virgil was anything but lazy.

To Dante, it looked like he was barely managing to stand up.

“This isn’t about **you** this time, is it?” Virgil asked. It was unusual for the phrase to benefit him in any way. He was much stronger than most demons and he had fought off two angels at once at some point yet… yet now was different.

“Are you feeling alright?” Dante asked. Virgil let his shoulders slump down and sat down, or rather his knees buckled up. “Did an angel do this to you?” Dante sat down next to his brother and let Virgil lean on him.

 

The demon was a deeper red than usual, which meant that he was angry and dangerous but Dante knew that a demon’s skin could also turn the same colour for defensive reasons. It made other demons stay away, after all, and that was very useful when a demon was feeling ill or weak.

“I’m fine.” Virgil lied like a good demon would. It was fine, Dante wouldn’t believe him anyway.

“Do you want me to leave you here, all alone?” Dante joked. A shiver went down Virgil’s spine.

“Please don’t.”

“What happened?”

Virgil thought about it. He was feeling numb and dizzy. He really wanted to get some rest which was a feeling that he hadn’t felt for a long while. It usually meant that his body had a lot of things to fix. It usually meant bad things. Yet, he wasn’t in any pain.

Was this the Devil’s work?

It could be. Virgil had proven himself to be a rather weak demon. Apologizing to and punching his own kind, befriending an angel, _needing_ Dante.

He did need Dante.

 

Virgil let out a deep sigh. He did **need** Dante.


End file.
